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Saturday, 9 January 2016

Review - The Hateful Eight

The Hateful Eight is Quentin Tarantino's eighth film, its a western/mystery film, starring Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Walton Goggins, Tim Roth, Demian Bichir, Michael Madsen and Bruce Dern. After a blizzard begins, 8 strangers gather in Minnie's Haberdashery, a stagecoach stopover, John Ruth (Russell) is taking his captive, Daisy Domergue (Leigh) to Red Rock to hang, but suspects one of the strangers to be on her side, with no one to trust, Ruth along with Major Marquis Warren (Jackson) need to figure out who the traitor among them is and of course because its a Tarantino film, blood will be shed. The story is so engaging in the film, wondering who the traitor(s) is and who can and can't be trusted, its surprising how exciting the film is with it being set in one room, which is thanks to Tarantino's fantastic dialogue which can make anything interesting. With the runtime at a rather long, 167 minutes, the film really flies by and i was surprised when it was already over.

Like all of Tarantino's films, the best part are the characters and in this film its no exception, the eight mains; John Ruth, a bounty hunter who always captures his bounties alive to hang, Daisy Domergue, a horrible woman who is also John's fugitive, Major Marquis Warren, another bounty hunter and a former Union soldier, Chris Mannix, a man that claimed himself the town's new sheriff, and four strangers that have already been there before they were arrive: Bob, the Mexican caretaker of Minnie's, Oswaldo Mobray, Red Rock's hangman, Joe Gage a quiet cowboy and Sanford Smithers a Confederate General. Among the characters Sam Jackson's Major Marquis Warren and Kurt Russell's John Ruth are the standouts, the are the most likable of a horrible bunch, Tarantino's words flow incredibly through these characters and are amongst my favourite Tarantino characters ever. Daisy Domurgue is also a very interesting character, being the only female in the piece, she is as terrible as the rest of the characters and her dynamic with John Ruth is fascinating, with their captive/captor relationship which is ever changing and confusing to the audience. None of the characters are terribly written but i felt that Madsen's Joe Gage and Bichir's Bob were underdeveloped, with Gage just not being as interesting as the other 7 main characters and Bob just seemed like a Mexican stereotype through the film.

The performances in the film are incredible, especially Jackson who delivers a barn burner of a monologue during the fast half of the film that gave me chills and made me remember how insanely talented and energetic he is, Russell is being his usual awesome self and makes his character instantly likable even when he is doing questionable things, Roth's quirky British performance could've been annoying but he was great and the audience was laughing at every line that came out his mouth.

The film is shot beautifully, with the beautiful winter landscapes and the inventive shots, this is Tarantino's best looking film. Ennio Morricone's score is terrific also, with some truly memorable music that plays in my head when imagining the scene that its in.

There wasn't too much that i didn't like in the film, Tarantino films feel tailor made for me and i enjoy them so much, that i don't find too many flaws in them, my main critique with the film would be that the film doesn't let you piece together who the traitor(s) is yourself, by the time they start giving you clues they eliminate who it could be before you can get to it yourself which is a shame and while i loved the ending of the film, i feel like Tarantino always has to end with a shootout, which works in the film but feels like it is getting rather predictable now and i don't know how he can keep making it interesting, but i'm sure he'll surprise me and keep it fresh.

Tarantino has done it again with The Hateful Eight, while not being my favourite of his films it is still an incredible film and a filmmaker at the height of his powers, i recommend anyone who loves Tarantino to go out and see the film, you won't be disappointed.

9.0/10What did you think of The Hateful Eight?Comment and let me know!